Trailing in polls, Mack gets on the bus

Republican U.S. Senate nominee Connie Mack IV, who a new Fox News poll shows is running double-digits behind Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, will spend the next week bouncing across Florida on a bus, the campaign announced Thursday night.

Mack will launch his six-day “Freedom Tour” Saturday in Gainesville. While steering clear of South Florida, Mack will spend plenty of time next week in such Republican strongholds as Jacksonville, the Orlando area and the Panhandle. Various VIPs are expected to join him at select stops, the campaign said.

The tour comes on the heels of a Fox News survey showing Mack trailing Nelson by 49-35 percent. The poll was conducted Sept. 16-18, with 829 Florida likely voters surveyed. One of the more revealing sections showed Mack losing 14 percent of Republican voters to Nelson, a crossover the GOP candidate is clearly trying to pull back to his side.

Fox also reported President Obama ahead of Republican Mitt Romney 49-44 percent. Mack has acknowledged that his Senate prospects are hinged largely on whether Romney can win Florida.